Anime directors take on the galaxy, with themes of light and dark, and one very whimsical droid.
With spiritual journeys, bombastic action, and heart-rending sequences, the Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 catalogue shows us again that in this galaxy, there’s room for countless adventures. In addition to the three directors helming the sequels to “The Duel,” “The Village Bride” and “The Ninth Jedi,” the third volume in the series introduces six new standalone stories.
StarWars.com had the chance to sit down with the directors behind these captivating tales for insights on their process, inspirations, and philosophies.
“The Song of Four Wings” | Project Studio Q
Hiroyasu Kobayashi on a love for Mecha, Star Wars designs, and music.
Directed by Hiroyasu Kobayashi, “The Song of Four Wings” is a mecha-anime inspired tale that sees Crane, a Rebel princess, and her droid sidekick, Tor-Tu, investigate the Imperial presence on a snowy planet. On every level of production, Kobayashi thought of unique ways to best represent Japan’s artistic output. “Since the project came back to Japanese studios this time, I was sure this short needed distinctly Japanese and anime ideas,” Kobayashi says. “But rather than going for some classical ‘traditional Japan’ aesthetic, my priority was to include what feels essentially Japanese to me personally.“
Kobayashi drew on his background working in anime to combine mecha and tokusatsu (a Japanese film genre that relies heavily on the use of practical effects, such as those seen in Godzilla or Kamen Rider) transformation sequences. This paired naturally with his favorite parts of the Star Wars universe. “I thought animation would be an interesting way to explore the amazing mechanical design like that of [Star Wars concept artist] Joe Johnston, who I really love — especially in the vehicle action sequences.”
As a result of these compatible interests, the story shows us our hero Crane combining with her droid to take on a likewise transforming AT-AT in a bombastic sequence. “Doing this for real, I sensed firsthand how the unique visuals of Japanese anime and tokusatsu are spreading around the world now.”
From the outset, Kobayashi wanted to focus on the world of Jedi Knights, which led his team to center the story around Crane rescuing Woopas, a lovable yet tragic Gigorian child (We have previously seen adult Gigorians in live-action) who is the last survivor of an Imperial attack.
“From the start, I wanted to include such a character on the good guys’ side,” he says. Kobayashi knew he wanted a “Japanese-style cute design” for Woopas, but thought it best to draw from an existing species from the massive wealth of Star Wars concepts. “Our character designer Shinya Mizuno brought all that together, and our animators brought the charm to life to the maximum.”
There is also a critical emphasis on the music. “Personally, I wanted to put one really impressive song — or specifically, one melodic element — at the heart of the piece, using it as a motif to express the story and the theme of ‘the legacies we leave,’” Kobayashi says. It seems that much like a Rebel princess combining with a droid to form an X-wing-like mech armor, Kobayashi and his team found the right blend of disparate elements to craft a unique entry in the Star Wars galaxy.
“BLACK” | david production
Shinya Ohira talks about the intensity of “BLACK.”
Legendary animator Shinya Ohira’s “BLACK” is sure to leave an impression on everyone who sees it. A wordless and fast-paced visual overload, the short depicts a psychedelic battle between past and present, light and dark, and life and death playing out in the haunted psyche of an Imperial trooper who is on the cusp of defeat. “BLACK” is not a story that is easily recapped, and instead must be seen to fully embrace the vast depth it has to offer.
“I want people to really feel the way this middle-aged man is writhing in pain, exhausted by battle,” Ohira says.
The film is incredibly evocative, raw, and utterly unique in its visual storytelling. It asks “What is justice in the face of war? What is the price paid for it?’” Ohira says. “Hopefully, seeing animation as the art of making things move will give people a sense of what it really means to be an animator.”
The movie interplays a frantic jazz score that weaves in sync with the intense visuals. Ohira says that striking that balance was critical to the deeper meaning of the work. “I want viewers to get a sense of dissonance between the battle visuals and the light, swinging jazz music,” Ohira says. “Then, moving into the latter half of the work, the idea moves into showing war repeating itself in rhythm with the repetition of the music.”
The intensity of the film exists at every level, even the title. “We mean ‘BLACK’ in the sense of darkness,” Ohira says. “A deep, sickening darkness.”
Every detail of the short’s vivid and frenetic linework is of critical importance to Ohira. “I believe animation is all about making things move! I love paying attention to the things that might seem pointless,” he says.
When asked about the challenges and opportunities of creating something in an established universe like Star Wars, Ohira says “I kept wondering how realistic I should get in depicting outer space, but when I was actually at work on the film, I didn’t end up giving much conscious thought to the presence or absence of gravity as the production moved along.”
BLACK is a story that will sit with you for days after watching. As we contemplate its visuals and the “writhing pain of a middle-aged man,” we can all see that a tremendous level of craft went into this unforgettable depiction of the Star Wars universe.
“The Bird of Paradise” | Polygon Pictures
Tadahiro “Tady” Yoshihira shares thoughts on spirituality, the world without sight, and the meaning of the Force.
Tadahiro “Tady” Yoshihira’s “The Bird of Paradise” is a deeply spiritual and meditative tale. It follows Nakime, a hot-headed Padawan, who undergoes a series of spiritual trials in order to overcome the temptation of the dark side, after she is blinded in battle by a Sith.
Tadahiro says his team wanted to focus on depicting the invisible. “We wanted to show mysterious events taking place through our heroine’s internal world, where the line between reality and unreality is blurred,” he says. Tadahiro’s unique story connects to the origins of animisms found across the world. In a manner similar to George Lucas being influenced by Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey to create Star Wars, Tadahiro says he looked to The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structures for Writers as a base. “The story blends Western approaches to philosophy and religion with Japanese concepts of Shinto philosophy and the myriad kami,” he says.
After the Sith blinds our heroine, the film adopts a vivid, painterly style, allowing us to see the world through Nakime’s eyes. The team conducted interviews with people who are blind, and paid careful attention to their lived experiences to inform the artistic depiction of the world without sight.
“People who are blind often experience their field of vision as something created by their brains, through their imagination,” Tadahiro says. “I took part in a complete light-blocking exercise to simulate total sight loss for myself, and I kept those visions my brain created close to heart while working with the art and CG teams to build up the visual style step by step.”
Mindful of midi-chlorians, the Star Wars concept of microscopic life forms found in the cells of all living beings, Tadahiro combined this idea with their research to create the swirling, hazy phenomena seen in the short.
As Nakime takes her physical and internal journey through the forest, the story includes metaphors alluding to the Genesis creation story and the Japanese creation story, as well as other myths and ideas from around the world. And ultimately, the piece is largely a contemplation of Jedi philosophy, and invites viewers to walk along a metaphorical path.
“There are many universal elements of the Jedi philosophy that anyone can understand, but it emerged in its own culture, and it is different from what many Japanese people would imagine to be the samurai mindset or Japanese thoughts and beliefs,” he says. Ultimately, Tadahiro’s team provided us a deeply ponderous look at what the Force can mean when we look at it through different cultural lenses.
“The Smuggler” | TRIGGER
Masahiko Ōtsuka on Episode IV, oppression, and exploring new things.
Director Masahiko Ōtsuka has had a creative relationship with Star Wars for a long time. “I’ve been harboring the deep-seated desire to create something like Star Wars for so long that, ironically, when the time came, I had too many ideas to work with,” Ōtsuka says. “Rather than the agonizing process of coming up with ideas from scratch, I had the difficult yet enviable problem of cutting them down.”
The result of Ōtsuka narrowing focus is “The Smuggler,” a classic Star Wars tale full of skullduggery where Chita, a smuggler desperate for a quick payday, takes a job to rescue a fugitive from the Empire.
For this story, Ōtsuka says he wanted to capture the feeling and energy of Star Wars: A New Hope in a fraction of the run time. To achieve that goal, Ōtsuka looked to the anime he watched in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, which was the same period when he was being creatively influenced by Star Wars. “I was consciously working with the idea of fusing those elements together, so those foundational viewing experiences — Star Wars and the anime I saw in my teens and 20s — serve as the source of inspiration.”
Ōtsuka aimed to illustrate a relatively straightforward example of the Empire’s tyranny, imprisoning people who vaguely resemble the fugitive prince they are trying to arrest. “It’s a simple moral axis. But on the other hand, oppression of people seeking freedom happens in the real world, too. That’s a universal theme, and one of the core factors that makes Star Wars appealing,” he says. “I don’t think we pushed it into the foreground too heavily, but I believed that we mustn’t treat it as fantasy, but as a real-life issue.”
To illustrate the sorts of conflicts that come with standing against oppression, Ōtsuka designed Chita to go through a similar transformation as Star Wars’ original smuggler Han Solo, at first taking a job but growing into a full-fledged member of the Rebellion.
“I’ve always thought someone can’t be a protagonist without a sense of justice. But while someone might hold onto that feeling on the inside, in reality, they might have to do work they don’t agree with just to make ends meet,” Ōtsuka says. “When people are given a chance to actually act on their sense of justice, I think it comes down to whether they can take action — something which takes courage to do. I wanted to show a protagonist who could demonstrate that in action.”
With “The Smuggler,” Ōtsuka and his team were able to crack the emotional code behind the joys of a Star Wars story. “Star Wars is what helped me find the joy in discovering and exploring new things — things I had never tried before — even in my own animation work, without just falling into routine,” he says. “That in itself has been a guiding principle and part of the foundation of how I create my work.”
“Yuko’s Treasure” | Kinema citrus Co.
Masaki Tachibana talks a heartwarming tale and Darth Bear.
“Yuko’s Treasure” is one of the most heartwarming tales to come out of the Star Wars galaxy. Helmed by director Masaki Tachibana, the story focuses on delivering an impactful message along with a sense of adventure.
“We wanted to tell a story about kids taking action to carve out a new destiny,” Tachibana says. “Even when facing a painful setback or feeling discouraged, I hope viewers will also find the strength to keep moving forward and stay positive — maybe together with a helping hand from someone else.”
We follow Yuko, a sheltered orphan who is cared for by his droid BILY. Finding relatable emotional experiences was a goal for Tachibana’s team, especially knowing that the story would include a lot of fantastical whimsy. “ As long as it rings true emotionally, the audience will be able to accept it even if the means of solving problems seems fanciful. That’s why we put a lot of detail into the character animation,” he says.
In search of an apparent treasure, pirates kidnap BILY, leaving Yuko to team up with a lonely street rat kid, Sola, to go and rescue him. BILY is unlike most droid designs we see in Star Wars, more like a stuffed animal than your typical droid. “Muneki Ogasawara [a Kinema citrus staffer] pitched the idea of a teddy-like droid, which the pirates reprogram into ‘Darth Bear’ to attack Yuko,” Tachibana says. Darth Bear and Darth Vader sound similar in Japanese. “That was the initial idea. However, since we can’t touch on the canon in this story, we had to avoid names that could sound like a parody of it. We wanted to show Yuko as a very sheltered, pampered child facing his first big challenge in life. Character Designer Atsuko Nozaki refined BILY’s appearance to reflect this goal, as we go from seeing the adorable, caring and reassuring droid in the first half of the story transformed into a brainwashed, fearsome adversary in the latter.”
Through all the harrowing experiences, the story never loses its sense of fun, and lands on a beautiful, hopeful note as Yuko, Sola, and a back-to-normal BILY begin a grand adventure together.
“We wanted to make this a fun watch for kids,” Tachibana says, “I hope that my work leaves you with something helpful for your own life, however slightly.”
“The Bounty Hunters” | WIT Studios
Junichi Yamamoto reflects on good and evil, duality, and Droideka mechs.
“The Bounty Hunters” directed by Junichi Yamamoto opens with a flashback of a burning mansion as a Jedi ominously approaches our protagonist, a bounty hunter named Sevn. As the Jedi seemingly raises a weapon towards her, as the audience, we’re left to wonder about the morality of the situation.
“I still think of Jedi as beings of light and justice, but from another perspective, that presence in itself can be frightening,” Yamamoto says. “I thought this could give us a really effective way to show the growth of our protagonist through her own shift in perspective, as she goes from fear to admiration.”
Yamamoto notes that motifs of light and dark, and of good and evil, are major parts of the Star Wars universe, so his team found that focusing on a scoundrel who would learn to strive towards justice would be the perfect vehicle for exploring that.
As the story continues, we see Sevn, alongside her droid IV-A4 (who has multiple personalities), take a job from Jin-Sim, a philanthropist who takes in war orphans. But on the mission, they realize that Jin-Sim is not what he seems.
During the final battle, Jin-Sim admits to his villainy and dives into an ostentatious, gigantic Droideka mech to take out Sevn personally. “I thought of it as an extension of his character,” he says. “My idea was that he probably had this made to order. I thought of how he would have ordered it: ‘If I’m piloting it, it should be big! I want it gold and chrome and shiny!’ We based the design off the result of that concept.”
They eventually manage to defeat Jin-Sim, by tricking him with IV-A4’s multiple personalities.
“From the light and dark sides of Sevn, the two distinct personalities of IV-A4, the dynamic between Sevn and Jin-Sim — all of these embody different variations on the same theme,” Yamamoto says.
“The Bounty Hunters” is a thrilling ride with laser focus on a core tenant of Star Wars. “One theme of Star Wars is that while wars between people and planets keep occurring over all sorts of things, the heart contains both light and dark,” he says. “I think Star Wars fundamentally explores the question of the right way to live.”
Watch Star Wars: Visions on Disney+ now.
